Cathay Pacific: The air freight industry is worried about overcapacity and yield pressure this year

Cathay Pacific and Dragon last year's passenger capacity rose 7.9% under the exchange rate yield pressure Cathay Pacific announced that the combined passenger and cargo and mail capacity settlement in December with Dragonair recorded significant growth in passenger, cargo and mail capacity in December compared to the same period last year.

The two airlines carried 158,700 tonnes of cargo and mail last month, representing a year-on-year increase of 1.4% and a decrease of 0.3 percentage points to 67.9%. Capacity in terms of available cargo and mail tonnage kilometres increased by 2.4%, while cargo and mail revenue in tonnage kilometres increased by 2%. For the whole of last year, cargo capacity increased by 4.3%, capacity increased by 5.4%, and cargo and mail revenue ton-kilometres also increased by 5.4%.

Cathay Pacific cargo operations and marketing general manager Sam Meng said the traditional peak season for cargo operations lasted until the week before Christmas. In terms of volume, at least, the cargo business performed slightly better than expected in December, with continued strong demand on trans-Pacific and India routes. However, excess capacity in the global air freight market has made it difficult to raise rates to the usual levels of the year-end freight season. Heading into 2016, overcapacity and pressure on yields remain concerns for the air transport industry.